TV Review: Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice crossover

Meredith's old mate Sadie (above) is one of the new faces to join Grey's Anatomy.

Grey's Anatomy has long specialised in double talk.

Entire conversations pass with characters repeating the same word or phrase.

Seriously? Seriously. Seeeriously. And so on.

At times it feels like watching the old McDonald's ad for double cheeseburgers. I'd like a double, double, cheese, cheese, burger, burger please.

Last night's special crossover with Private Practice saw this habit in double force.

Meredith and Christina realised they didn't know the men in their lives: "I don't know him."

"I don't know Owen. We don't. We don't know them."

Meredith told Sadie she didn't want to run away with her: "I'm right here. I'm here. I want to be here. I want to be here."

Even the newbies are at it. Owen told Christina: "When you look at me, you look at me and see me. You see me. This is me. This is me. See me."

It's supposed to be dramatic. But the fact is if you cut all the doubled talking nonsense from Grey's, you would have half the show.

Which perhaps explains the need for the double crossover special. Having become increasingly insubstantial on its own, the writers decided to call in the big guns of Private Practice - to double the star power and have the two core casts collide.

Derek has been positively banal since Addison jumped ship. No longer McDreamy, simply McSnooze.

But last night saw him come to life as he spat barbed insults at Archer, sparred with his ex-wife and laughed drunkenly with his old friends Naomi and Sam.

It was a foolish move by the writers - highlighting how easily the two shows could be combined.

In these economic times of cost cutting and down-sizing, the last thing you should do is show your investors how you could be assimilated into another business.

But while it made for improved viewing, when compared with the series' usual shtick, as a crossover event, it was lacking.

Part of the delight in a crossover is seeing two unrelated worlds collide. The thrill, as a viewer, when you realise two programmes share the same universe.

But Private Practice is already a spin-off. We know Addison's history; we've seen her walk the halls of Seattle Grace before.

There was no novelty in seeing her return and no epiphany as we saw the characters come together.

Instead, we got two hours of vaguely more animated medical drama, minus some of the periphery characters.

If the crossover event revealed one thing, it was just how pointless some of the people on Grey's and Private Practice are. Did anyone even notice Dell the boy-child-midwife's absence?

Perhaps it is time to cut the fat - and the double talk - on Grey's and Private Practice. There could just be some solid drama lurking beneath.